Kerri Bedrick, Centerport mom charged in wrong-way crash that killed her son, a domestic violence survivor, court papers show

The Centerport woman accused of killing her 9-year-old son by driving impaired in a wrong-way crash is a "domestic violence survivor" and may claim "battered woman syndrome" as a defense after allegedly enduring violent attacks by the boy's father, according to her lead attorney and a new motion.

Kerri Bedrick, 33, who is facing a second-degree murder charge in the August 2024 crash on the Southern State Parkway that killed her son, Eli D. Henrys, said in court papers she was "strangled to the point of unconsciousness" by Dean Henrys, Eli's father, in 2019 — five years before, which "caused lasting cognitive injuries and other complications that may have impaired" Bedrick's "mental capacity or influenced her actions at the time of the charged offense," the court papers state.

As a result, according to the court papers and Bedrick's lead attorney, David Besso, in an interview, the charges should be dismissed.

"They give her no sympathy whatsoever for being a domestic violence survivor," said Besso, of Bay Shore. "I think there has been a change with regard to the way that domestic violence survivors are treated by the criminal justice system. This was a case where she was going the wrong way — that's it. It was an accident. She wasn't impaired in any way. She may have been sleep-deprived."

The potential domestic violence defense was raised in a motion seeking to compel the Suffolk County District Attorney's Office to produce all of its records, including police reports, medical records and witness statements, in its prosecution of Dean Henrys.

Newsday has reported that Suffolk police responded to a call about a "strangulation" on Jan. 21, 2019, according to department records. Henrys had come home intoxicated and hit Bedrick while she was holding a then-3-year-old Eli, Newsday reported, citing police records.

Henrys was convicted of second-degree strangulation and endangering the welfare of a child. He was sentenced to 2 years in prison plus 1½ years post-release supervision, a spokesperson for the DA's office said.

Bedrick has pleaded not guilty to a 21-count grand jury indictment charging her with two counts of second-degree depraved indifference murder, manslaughter, aggravated vehicular homicide and aggravated driving while intoxicated with a child for the Aug. 22, 2024, crash that killed Eli.

Prosecution: Positive for meth

Prosecutors have said Bedrick's blood tested positive for methamphetamine, but her defense attorneys said in the new motion that the toxicology report detected the presence of .05 ml of methamphetamine, a "low, therapeutic level" that "does not support a finding of impairment." Bedrick was prescribed the drug to treat narcolepsy, a chronic neurological disorder that causes excessive sleepiness, the motion states.

The defense's omnibus motion, filed Monday in Suffolk County Court in Riverhead by attorney Jessica E. Wright, also seeks other relief, including the dismissal of the murder charges and the suppression of evidence.

A spokesperson for the district attorney's office declined to comment on the motion.

The motion lays out potential defenses related to the past domestic violence that Bedrick sustained such as a "diminished capacity" caused by "cognitive impairments from strangulation" that could "negate the specific intent required for certain charges, such as murder in the second degree."

Evidence that Bedrick suffered from "battered woman syndrome" could mitigate her culpability, and evidence that she acted under "extreme emotional disturbance" from "the trauma of prior abuse could support an affirmative defense reducing murder to manslaughter," the motion said. 

The defense also argued in its motion that evidence seized from a search of Bedrick's car and statements she made to officers after the crash should be thrown out. It argued that the warrantless search of her vehicle was illegal because she lacked the ability to consent to the search due to the "trauma and physical injuries" she sustained in the crash and the "extreme emotional distress" caused by her son's death.

Hours of footage

"There are hours of body worn police video footage of the defendant making in-custody statements without being mirandized," the motion said, referring to a criminal suspect's constitutional right to remain silent.

The statements, her lawyers argued, "were involuntary because she was physically and emotionally incapacitated, precluding her ability to make a free and rational decision to speak with law enforcement."

Prosecutors have alleged that Bedrick told authorities that she had taken methamphetamine at 8 the night of the crash, which happened hours later, after 2 a.m.

On the night of the crash, according to a police account of what Bedrick told authorities, she went out with Eli for food and eventually pulled over to sleep after being awake for several days. When she woke up, she was disoriented and cars on the road were beeping at her because she was driving too slowly, she told police. 

She said her left leg got stiff and she was unable to take it off the gas pedal, and was unaware that she was driving the wrong way.

A Newsday investigation published in March found that CPS caseworkers investigated at least seven complaints against Bedrick since 2018 alleging drug use, neglect and abuse of Eli, but all of the complaints were ruled unsubstantiated and no action was taken.

By Nicole Fuller

nicole.fuller@newsday.com@NicoleFuller

Nicole Fuller is Newsday's senior criminal justice reporter. She began working at Newsday in 2012 and previously covered local government.